First edition SDG Action Festival Events for Business students

130 students Event Management from different universities
Belgium (VIVES, University of applied sciences) Finland (Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Lapland University of Applied Sciences) and The Netherlands (Breda University of Applied Sciences and Inholland University of Applied Sciences) have followed a program to learn about organizing an event within an international context. 5 Online lessons hosted one by on by each of the partner-universities and 5 days of preparing onsite in Kortrijk in April have led to this very first SDG Action Festival.

Friday: leaving!
Friday evening 21st of April 43 students of Buas together with two lecturers left by bus to Kortrijk, Youth Hostel Groeninge. At the arrival of the first real life meetings took place. Most of the students decided to find out about the night life of Kortrijk and this way the connections between the different university students were getting closer already. Some of the lecturers of all partner universities had met the year before and it was really nice to meet and finally see all the hard work coming to life.

Saturday: opening and start working!
Saturday morning all lecturers and students gathered for the official opening of the 5 days. First, they were welcomed by An Ostyn, the project leader and initiator of this project together with Bart Delorez, both from VIVES university. Following the opening, the bank moment was there: all student teams received an envelope with money and instructions to be able to buy necessary materials for their pop-up event. Next to that, there was a lot of material provided by the city of Kortrijk which needed to be shared and spread all around the different locations. A logistical challenge it was…. The buildings of VIVES were especially for these days open for the international student teams. They had a lot of space and rooms to work together on painting, meetings, etc etc. The students were offered a tour around the city of Kortrijk where they got to know the exact locations of their own pop-up event. At the end of the day a huge mountain of pizza’s was delivered at the university for all 130 students and teachers. And again, the night life of Kortrijk, specifically the club ‘De Geverfde Vogel’ was explored…

Sunday: last preparations!
On Sunday again, everyone could work on the last preparations for the event at the university. Of course, all this hard work makes hungry and since we are in Flanders, the real Flemish fries arrived in the food truck. After all this, all student teams had to show case their event at the university for all international teachers. The last tips and feedback were given for the finetuning. The students took their responsibility and skipped the ‘Geverfde Vogel’ and went to sleep early.

Monday: D-Day!
Students needed to get up at 6.30 to prepare for the pop-up event. Everything needed to be up and running at 8.00 pm sharp! All teachers and the jury walked the trail of all pop-up events multiple times and filled in their assessment forms. All teams performed well. They have worked very hard and had to find solutions for some hick-ups. It was a cold Monday morning and very windy. But luckily it was dry and during the afternoon, it became sunny even! Some pallets were blown away, there were less people in the streets than expected, however all in all they did a very good job. During the afternoon, the pop-up events at the elementary school and VIVES took place. The schoolchildren were very enthusiastic and happy about the workshops offered. The students at VIVES needed a little more encouragement from the student teams to involve and engage them into their pop-up events.

After the event, everything needed to be cleaned up and students had time off to take some rest and process their new experiences. There was not that much time, since the whole group of students and teachers were invited to a reception at the city hall of Kortrijk where there was a speech by the alderwoman Kelly Detavernier of Culture and Events, with a big Thank you and a good glass of wine/beer, to all students and teachers, especially An and Bart from VIVES Kortrijk, who dared to organise this huge project.

Tuesday: Award Show!
On Tuesday, the award show took place at JC Tranzit.  All students’ teams created an aftermovie of their event, presented this and their reflections. A jury of 3 people (Director School Event from Paris, PR manager Natuurkoepel, Lecturer VIVE) assessed their project and handed out 3 awards: best concept, best presentation and best…

Wednesday: Bruges!
Wednesday morning all students and lecturers took the train to Bruges. A very nice city about one hour from Kortrijk. We were offered a tour at De Halve Maan, a beer brewery, famous for special Belgian Beer like Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik. At the end, Bart Delorez did a final speech and expressed his feelings of proud all of us, to make this first SDG Festival a big success. Next year, the next edition will be hosted by our colleagues from Finland. We are very much looking forward to it!